A recently closed legal migrant route encouraging “high skilled” individuals to come to the UK was “heavily abused” with huge numbers using it potentially lying about their incomes, a review by the Homes Office has found.

The government has been urged to reject ‘Windrush’-related pressure to dismantle migration controls, after a new study revealed Britain’s illegal immigrant population is seeing an annual net rise nearly equivalent to the size of the full-time British Army.